"Because you have obeyed me, my anger has passed away and I give you this new food. Kill these buffaloes when you need meat, when you need clothes, when you need tepees. These are all mine and I give them to you, my children. You must take only what you need. If you slay them when you have enough food, clothes, robes, or tepees, I will take all the buffaloes away, and I will also take from you again the grass and water."
"So the buffaloes were given to the Indians; and we must never forget the words of the Great Spirit as he spoke to our forefathers that day, many, many moons ago. So many moons that none of us can count them now!"
Shaking her white head and muttering to herself, old Moko went to her tepee, and Songbird, with the other children, sat watching the games played by the men and women.
Some of the men held arrows, which they tossed while other men threw their own arrows to try to stop the flight of the first arrow as it went swiftly past. It required great skill and a keen eye to measure the flight of the arrow and break it.
Other men, holding netted bats, like tennis rackets, played with a ball and kept it moving between them for a long time. The players had to keep the ball from falling to the ground and the rule was that if any man touched the ball with his hand, he must leave the game and pay a fine.
The younger men wrestled in pairs, each one striving to throw the other to the ground and hold him down until Big Wolf, Spotted Leopard, or Gray Beard had decided which one was the winner.
Little Songbird, sitting among the other children, cracked nuts between stones, and with a sharp, stout cactus thorn picked out the meats and ate them, until at last, too tired to keep her eyes open any longer, she curled herself on a buffalo robe and went to sleep.
So soundly she slept that she did not awaken, even when her father found her and carried her to their tepee home.